ATHLETIC top-ager Stasia Stevenson had a point to prove in 2024. The Eastern Ranges AFLW draft prospect was overlooked for Vic Metro in her bottom-age season and for the Summer hub. However after a promising start to the Coates Talent League Girls season, Stevenson quickly started turning heads.

“I remember last year I didn’t make any of these teams and I was like at the end of the season, I was like ‘I want to make Vic Metro that’s my goal’,” Stevenson said. “Then I just put in the work over the off-season and I think start of the season I had been pretty alright.

“I must have been good enough for them to ask me to come try out. “I tried out and I think that game I played alright as well, so I got to play Vic Metro and it was great. “The standards was really great and I think it helped me a lot as a player.”

From there, Stevenson continued to take her opportunities, running out for Box Hill in the VFLW and playing a key role for Eastern Ranges as they reached their second successive grand final.

“This year was just filled with opportunities for my football, so I got to play Vic Metro, got Box Hill in the VFL and just playing two grand finals,” Stevenson said. “I mean we lost both, but some great opportunities to play through the finals.”

Her season almost had a heartbreaking end when suffering an injury in the preliminary final win against Geelong Falcons. Though Stevenson did manage to get up for the Coates Talent League Grand Final, it was confirmed after that match she had a stress fracture and ligament damage.

“I should out of my moonboot in a couple of weeks because it’s already been a week,” Stevenson said at the State Draft Combine. “Then just rehab and I’ll start increasing my loads and hopefully I’m into it soon.”

Stevenson’s journey started in the Under 10s at Waverley Park Hawks before moving to Lysterfield where she was zoned to the Ranges. The former midfielder has become more of a high half-forward, a role she has enjoyed and now sees as her preferred position.

“I think I see myself as a forward who can play mid,” Stevenson said. “I like both roles just as much, but I’m mainly a high-forward but I think I could play anywhere in that forwardline. “I think high-forward just suits me and I know where to go and it’s not a position a lot of people play.”

The Collingwood supporter says her run and carry as well as her speed and tackling pressure. She bases her game off Magpies small forward Beau McCreery and writes his name on her wrist pre-match. As for her improvements, Stevenson is honing in on her kicking as an area to build upon, as well as her marking.

Stevenson might not have tasted premiership success this year, but younger sister Ebony won best on ground in Rowville Secondary College’s Intermediate Girls Herald Sun Shield Grand Final.

“It was really great,” Stevenson said. “Hopefully she gets into Eastern and I can go watch her play and watch her improve as a player herself, and for her to be awarded best on ground, it was just a reward for her effort.”

Stevenson said she and her sister play a similar half-forward role, but Ebony has a “better running capacity” and plays “a bit more wing”, whereas the top-ager is more inside-leaning.

The 2024 AFLW Draft is less than two months away, and with the draft now fully national, Stevenson said she was prepared to travel across the country to chase her dream.

“I would go anywhere,” she said. “I’d go to WA, Queensland, Victoria, anywhere. I don’t mind.”